Back and Forth

I just read the blog of fellow Atlantic correspondent Lane Wallace, in which she raised important issues about photographs and quibbled with my digs at semioticians in a blog I wrote about photos of detainee abuse.  She notes that photographs will be interpreted differently by different people.

As it happens, I agree.  

But that does not mean that we should allow our government to withhold the release of the photos.  We can't interpret photos if we can't see them. 

Another key point: most, if not all, of the photos that the ACLU is asking to be released are not photos of Abu Ghraib at all.  They are photos from other US-controlled prisons.  Therefore, these photos may have quite a bit to say about whether there was a worldwide policy of detainee abuse.